On 14 September 2026, diplomats, education actors and others gathered in Geneva for a high-level reception to mark Education Cannot Wait’s (ECW) Replenishment Campaign, “Hope Starts Here”. The message was clear: when crises strike, children don’t give up on learning. Hope never disappears, even if the systems and funding that support it often do.
The event, “Securing Futures Now: Financing Education for Children in Crises”, was hosted at the Swiss Residence, and co-organised by ECW, the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies (EiE Hub) and the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations in Geneva.
Ambassador Thomas Gürber, the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, opened the event by stressing Switzerland’s long-standing commitment to children’s learning in emergencies: “Education keeps children safe. It protects them from exploitation, early marriage and recruitment into armed groups. It gives communities a foundation on which to recover. And over the longer term, education is an investment in peace, stability and prosperity.”
Salam Kanhoush, a master’s student at the Geneva Graduate Institute, then recounted his own remarkable and inspiring education journey. This included being detained and fleeing war in his native Syria, studying in conflict-stricken Sudan, and eventually arriving in Geneva after completing his university graduation project online from a small room in São Paulo, Brazil. “I stand before you today not just as a survivor of two devastating conflicts, but as living proof of what education can do. I managed to navigate life-threatening crises, displacement, and the terrifying unknown thanks to the foundational education my parents made sure I received. They gave me the basic tools to survive.”
Maysa Jalbout, Director of ECW, reflected on the Fund’s evolving and critical role in supporting students like Salam to gain an education, and how it has reached more than 14 million crisis-affected children and adolescents in little more than a decade: “As the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies, ECW was created around a simple idea: children affected by crises cannot wait for conflict to end, for economies to recover, or for political solutions to emerge before they can learn. They need support now.”
Anja Hochberg, the Chief Investment Officer at the Zürcher Kantonalbank, highlighted an innovative investment fund that channels 2% of its volume each year to ECW. The fund demonstrates how private finance can be harnessed in a practical, replicable way to diversify funding sources and reduce reliance on traditional aid flows. “My best personal investment has been education. As we all know, not all have had the privilege of receiving an education,” she said.
The evening was moderated by Petra Heusser, Executive Director of the EiE Hub.
More information on ECW’s Replenishment Campaign “Hope Starts Here” is available here.